A prayer for the election

This prayer is from the Australian Catholic Bishops that accompanied their Statement on the upcoming 2016 Australian federal election "A Vote for the Voiceless".

Holy God, at the dawn of time you fashioned the world and set it on its course. In the fullness of time your Son took flesh and sowed the seeds of a new order, and day by day your Spirit works to bring to birth your realm of mercy, justice and peace.

We give you thanks for Australia, the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. In this Spirit we pray for our land and all its people as the nation prepares to elect a new Federal Parliament.

We pray for the women and men who have offered themselves as candidates for public office. May those who are elected set their hearts always on honourable service and the common good.

We pray for the citizens of this much-blessed country, that they may take up their responsibility to vote with wisdom and freedom, and choose what is best for the whole community.

Loving God, to listen to your Son is to be moved to speak up for the unseen and unheard. Give us hearts to heed your Word and mouths to declare your truth.

We pray that throughout this election campaign Christian communities will be a voice for the voiceless.

We especially remember refugees and asylum seekers, indigenous peoples, survivors of sexual abuse, those who suffer family violence, those in the womb, the elderly, those suffering mental illness, those suffering addiction, those entrapped in new forms of slavery and the desperately poor beyond our shores.

We hold before you the whole of our world, both social and natural. We pray for a healthy society in which marriage and family life is respected and supported.

We pray for the earth our home – the land on which we dwell, the air we breathe, the water we drink – that creation’s cry for healing and care is heard.

Bless all who are elected to serve the nation; may the wisdom and courage of the Holy Spirit guide them to govern for the good of all.